No ID

My idea of using different color rubber bands on the chicks' ankles did not work out well. We tried one each on four of the chicks to watch the interaction. First, the babies would peck at their own little bands and literally pull themselves right off their own little feet! Other babies would chase them around trying to eat the bands. So we clipped the bands off, and back to the drawing board.  We might try later. But for now, we will think on ways of telling them apart.

The meal worms are still pretty tiny, so I pulled out about 20 very small worms and fed them to the babies. Now, that was cute! One of the chicks ate more than her fill! She would grab a meal worm and run to a corner of the box to eat her treat then quickly run back and grab another.

Last night was hard boiled egg yolk mashed into tiny pieces. That was not quite as big a hit as the meal worms, but some of them did enjoy that treat.

The warmer is working well for the babies. No pasty bottoms. 

This afternoon, I held all the chicks on my lap in our first "social" gathering. We only spent five minutes because they were climbing all over each other and I didn't want any injuries. Hopefully, as each day goes by, they calm down. It is interesting to see that they are already, at only a few days old, forming a hierarchy! 

It was a good day.

New Baby Russian Orloff Chick Chicks First Day Home

The babies have arrived. We were not the only ones who put in the order for Russian Orloff's this year. It was suggested by the feathered friend lady to grind up the baby mash a little finer for the first week, so we put it into the blender and let it break down into almost powder. As soon as they arrived, I dipped their little beaks into the water with electrolytes already in it. After a few minutes, they all ran to the "warmer" at the opposite end of the brooder and crowded under it like they would a momma hen. They spend a lot of time under the warmer, but take five to ten minute breaks venturing out for the food and water. We are going to use towels as their floor for the first few weeks until they are bigger and more hearty before putting in the wood shavings. I'm getting ready to hard boil an egg to mash up and feed to them. Here they are.

The Mealy Worm Adventure

Last Summer, we attempted to start producing our own meal worms. It was an epic failure because we had purchased (we think anyways) hormone treated "extra large" meal worms from the local pet store.  Later, we read that the giant worms are made that way with with a growth hormone that causes the resulting beetles to be sterile (non-fertile).  So we ultimately threw out the dead beetles and started over. We had not fed any of these worms to our chickens.

August, we purchased a small container of  "small" meal worms and tried again. By November, the beetles were practically swarming the container. For two months, we watched the beetles mating and burrowing through the "food" but never saw any baby worms hatching out.... Back to the drawing board. We thought we had again purchased sterile worms.  I finally found a website that explained that the beetles, if left un-attended in the main container, will eat all the worms as they are starting to grow as well as any pupae. 

The end of December, I pulled out all the beetles in the container and fed them "LIVE" to the chickens.  We were careful to make certain that none "escaped." (There is more about the potential issues of these beetles infesting a chicken coop, later in this post.) I had hoped that we would have enough eggs left over in the container to keep going. Literally, we ended up with 7 worms left from the beetles' feeding frenzy.  By the end of February, the larvae grew up, morphed into pupae and then into beetles.

As soon as the light golden brown beetles started to turn up in the container, I pulled them out and, one by one, put them into a small "deli soup container" and let them breed. I had poked small holes into the lid of the container, put a handful of wheat bran, two handfuls of steel-cut oats into the bowl with the beetles, along with a small piece of paper towel and a small fresh piece of cut carrot on top of the oatmeal.

Here's what I learned. The paper towel will absorb some of the moisture from the cut carrot but as the carrot shrivels up the paper towel will stay moist for a few more days. Under that paper towel is where the majority of the tiny worms will gravitate. I put in fresh paper towel and carrot slices twice a week. Also with the paper towel and twice weekly change out of carrot helps prevent mold and mildew from forming in the oatmeal while keeping some moisture in the container for the various stages of the worms.

Put four to six beetles into a small container with wheat bran, old-fashioned or steel-cut oats and the small carrot on the small piece of paper towel, and let them go at it for a week or so.  Take the beetles out of the container (I put them in a small jar) and dump the contents of that small container into a larger container with more oats and bran to allow the eggs to hatch and continue the cycle. Personally, I recommend killing the beetles after what I read about the potential of them infesting places. It sounds like they can spread diseases if allowed to "run free" and there are some articles about chicken farms in the south that have had real issues with Darkling Beetle. Read more about these infestation issues at this University of Georgia page.While I don't literally smash the beetles, I put them into a jar in my freezer and throw them away after a day. When I feed live meal worms to my chickens, I watch to make certain that all the worms are consumed. (That would be hard to do if we had a large-scale operation.) Using a slick sided bowl makes it harder for the worms to escape before being consumed. But, you can freeze and dry the worms for use, also, which will prevent any chance of an infestation.

Also, I learned NOT to purchase "mature" or large or giant meal worms from the pet store; not that I will need to purchase any more, at this rate.

I discovered that if I keep the beetles separated from the grubs, I have better meal worm output. The meal worms develop better/faster in a humid environment, so I decided to keep them in my laundry room. While I have not had any problems with mold/mildew in the container, I found out that if that occurs, it's a lot of work to clean out the container in order to save the grubs. Also, when the larvae pupate, you can gently take the pupae out and put them into separate areas, like a small plastic box with many sections so that, as they change into beetles, the remaining pupae do not get eaten by the new beetles. Also, you will need to dig through the food/substrate to look for pupae and/or beetles.  It's amazing how quickly they can develop in the right conditions.

The larger grubs are just a treat that our chickens LOVE. This is not intended to be their main meal. I can also put out worms for wild birds and, if necessary, I can probably give them away to wild bird enthusiasts if I end up with too many meal worms. 

When I grow my own meal worms, I know that the grubs have eaten. I know that the beetles are in a clean space, that the larvae are clean and that my birds are less likely to be infected with anything because, from start to finish, the meal worms were raised in a clean environment.

Springing into Orloff Season

Lots of behind the scenes activities during the winter month. Planning two new coops. One coop will be mobile, similar to the first ark we built. We are currently building a different type of A-Frame that will contain our pullets that we can pull around in our pastured backyard. We have plans to build a stationary coop and run over cement in a protected area for winter. This time, we are planning on building electrical outlets "inside" the coops for easier heat and lighting.

We put in an order for 10 baby chicks and they should arrive on Friday (we hope). We have a large brooder for the first few weeks and an extra large brooder as the chicks start to grow. We are hoping for a better survival rate, but are expecting a 50% survival. We've changed a few things. One of the issues we had last time was the chicks eating the wood shavings. Instead of wood shavings at the onset, we are going to use large thin towels that we can wash. We have four, so we can wash a Bucket load every three days and rotate the towels over a two or three week time period before we switch to the wood shavings.

We have some other changes in place. We will be using a Brinsea Chick Warming system this time so that we don't have to work so hard to regulate the temps in the brooder with a 250 watt heating lamp suspended over the coop. The warmer is large enough for up to 20 chicks, so we should be good with 10. We have a different chick feeder that will be more difficult for the chicks to stand on (we hope) and we will be using Organic chick feed by Payback. We are HOPING that these changes, collectively, will make a difference in survival rates.

I picked up some tiny latex color bands (the type little girls use in their hair) to mark the chicks. I'll put a different color around each chick's little leg and the bands are easy to clip off as they grow older. I'm just hoping that they won't "eat" the little bands. The bands are so tiny, I doubt that it would hurt them, if they do eat the bands. This is just an experiment to see if this will work as an adequate tracking system for individual socialization time and record keeping of their growth.

We have a chick water system already. We have the electrolytes and the pro-biotics ready for use from the onset. We will be hard boiling eggs so that we can feed the chicks a little bit of yolk every day. We have a portable table to put the brooder on so that the pets and grandkids can't pester and stress the chicks. We will use a fully extended baby gate to cover the brooder for added security and to prevent the chicks from flying out as they get older. I bleached/washed 20 small cotton towels that we use to hold the chicks on our laps for short periods of time to socialize them during the first few weeks while keeping them warm and feeling safe.

All in all, I think we are ready to go, and I hope that this is a good year for new chicks.

Sprung Spring and More Daylight

After the super cold dry winter we had, the rains are here and the grass is getting green. The chicks are in the stores now. It's amazing how many people go to the farm stores just to see the babies!

We put in a special order for chicks that should be arriving the last part of March. So we are gearing up for baby chicks; building a new coop, cleaning up the brooder, ordered an EcoGlow for brooder heat.

I'm working on trying to design a different waterproof feeder. The two-tiered feeder we are using now in the coop works fine, as is, but the next coop we are building will need a different system. If the feeder pans out as planned, I'll be certain to post pictures.

We changed out the red low-wattage heat lamp with a soft pink night light. Having a light source all night seems to help them feel safer. There's not a lot of ambient lighting at night in our backyard, and I'm hoping that the light discourages predators who like the darkness.

The girls are doing really good. They are loving the warmer weather and all the new bugs. Although the coyotes have been close by, they seem to be staying away from the coop. We don't seem to be having too much problem with mice or other little critters. I think the fact that we move the coop each week has been helpful with that.

So far, the eggs have been a big hit with family and friends. Several people have started purchasing the fresh eggs and rave about the flavor. I think the fact that the girls always have fresh pasture and bugs, contributes to the great taste.

Snow Coop - February Snow Falls

While we had some bitter cold weather in December, January was basically dry and warm in our area. The majority of the month of January was almost balmy with even a few "drought" fires in the area. There was only 50% of our usual snowpack on Mt. Hood. Such strange weather this winter for all the Pacific Coast regions. Then February changed all that, at least for the PacNW.  While we really are not getting a lot of precipitation, we are getting a lot of dry snow and bitter cold temps (for our region) with highs during the days in the 20s. Today is day three of our snow/storm. The chicklets are still laying eggs.  The day before the snow was simply bitter cold temps on Wednesday (29F with 35-40mph wind gusts), and the ladies only produced one egg between the four of them. Thursday, the East winds started howling and the snow started falling (or should I say flying). With every surface fully frozen outside, the snow was having a hard time sticking to anything and every gust of wind whipped the snow even farther, probably miles away, from its original land fall point.

The gals were not happy with the snow event. Their pen full of snow was not their idea of a fun place to be. We put up some ply-wood on the east and north side of the pen to at least protect them from the wind chill, which, by the way, in our area, was dropping the already freezing air temps to well below zero. On Friday, I added an extra layer of plastic on the south side of their pen to try to cut down on the amount of cold air draft from blowing in to their pen and under their coop.

We have a heavy military type water-proof canvas, fastened with bungee cords, wrapped over their coop to help insulate and protect them inside. We have a 75watt red (reptile) lamp in their coop for warmth. This strategy seems to be working.  We had three eggs on Thursday and four eggs on Friday.

This photo was taken Saturday morning. Without the drifts factored in, we have about five inches of snow on the ground. The wind is blowing snow from the east as you can see bits of snow blur by the nesting box in the top picture. The top picture is the zoomed in version of the original photo below it.

Snow coop Feb 8, 2014

Day	High	Low	Avg Low
4	36F	28F	35F
5	29	22	35
6	24	19	35
7	26	19	35
8	27	20	35
9	35	25	35
10	36	26	35
11	49	43	39

Drag Me Out!

The first two weeks of December had some days for the record books.  We started the month with some pretty good winds arriving from the south. While not the most fierce winds we have experienced. The wind had already knocked over my PVC pipe greenhouse a day or two after Thanksgiving. Those south winds brought in a lot of warmth and some rains. But one week after Thanksgiving (which was late in November this year), an arctic front flew in from the north and turned our weather upside down for this time of the year!  You can see based on our regional weather records that our temps went from the low fifties (F) down to almost five degrees above 0!!!  That's pretty darned cold around here. 

Here's the local weather chart for the first two weeks of December.

Day	Date	Hi	Lo	Wind Avg	Wind Gust
Sunday	12/01/13	53°	46°	11.4 mph	26.0 mph
Monday	12/02/13	49.9°	35.4°	4.9 mph	15.0 mph
Tuesday	12/03/13	39.8°	26.5°	2.2 mph	11.0 mph
Wednesday	12/04/13	35.1°	22.9°	3.8 mph	7.0 mph
Thursday	12/05/13	30.3°	15.6°	5.1 mph	15.0 mph
Friday	12/06/13	27.8°	21.5°	8.4 mph	18.0 mph
Saturday	12/07/13	26.3°	11.4°	5.6 mph	12.7 mph
Sunday	12/08/13	27.4°	5.7°	0.6 mph	4.6 mph
Monday	12/09/13	27.7°	9.3°	1.0 mph	4.6 mph
Tuesday	12/10/13	34.1°	23.4°	0.3 mph	3.0 mph
Wednesday	12/11/13	42.5°	19.5°	1.5 mph	8.1 mph
Thursday	12/12/13	39.8°	22.8°	1.0 mph	5.8 mph
Friday	12/13/13	44.2°	37.9°	0.3 mph	4.8 mph
Saturday	12/14/13	41°	33.3°	1.2 mph	8.1 mph

This was quite the test for our Four Little Russian Orloffs! 

I think we did almost lose them one night.  We had been using a 75W red heat lamp all night with a 40W white light coming on at 4:00 a.m. each morning. But as the nights just kept getting colder, the guys thought we should, perhaps, use the 250W red heat lamp (Saturday the 7th). Well, that was just too hot inside the coop and the next night at dusk, the four girls adamantly refused to be cooped up! At 8:00 p.m. the guys changed back to the 75W bulb, but still, the girls refused to go up.  Finally, at almost 11:00, I went outside in my bathrobe to try to entice the girls to go up into their coop with some mealworms. I was able to get three up there, but one, as hard as she tried, kept falling over. At that point, it was only 14F and I think she was too tired and cold to make the trek up the cold (now slippery) ramp.  I had no choice but to crawl into the pen, under the coop, scoop her up and push her up the ramp. I had already been out there for 20 minutes trying to Chicken Whisper them into the coop. My fingers were starting to feel frost bitten with that achy burning. When I grabbed Orange, aka Little White Wings,  to help her, she actually felt colder than my hands, so she had to just be freezing at that point! That next morning, the temps had dropped down to a little under 6F! I doubt that any of them would have survived outside that night, even huddled together.

We also think that some of the issue is the loss of ramp traction for the girls.  During the cold weather, the ramp has basically turned into a slide, especially in the mornings.  The skateboard grip tape isn't working in the cold. I picked up a couple of wooden yardsticks to cut up and staple onto the ramp. That new traction has been accomplished today and we will see if it helps Orange get up that ramp on her own power. 

So, for the rest of this last week, I've been helping Chicken Wrangle.  On Tuesday night, I ended up having to crawl into the somewhat muddy/poopy pen to chase down Red who had shooed Orange into the back corner.  Of course, Red, being the feisty one, was not happy with me trying to carry her out of the pen.  I ended up getting stuck as I was  backing out on my elbows and my knees, firmly holding Red with both hands. I got stuck just inside the pen's door and so D grabbed my feet to help pull me out of my stuck position. Finally, got Red into the coop and had to head back in to get Orange. It was a lot easier getting out with Orange since she's not so wiggly and squirmy. But, the ground was not yet frozen for the night, and I was a bit of a mess, by that time. Friends were asking me where the YouTube of this feet pulling event could be found online.  Um! Ha Ha! We don't have Night Vision Cameras for this potential Funniest Home Video :)

The rest of the nights, the three "big" girls have made it up the ramp on their own. Orange will make a half-hearted attempt to go up but seems to prefer to have me reach into the pen and either push her up the ramp or slip her into the coop's side door. What a silly little game. They all wait for us to get out there to insure that little Orange will have help, then they proceed to go to bed and wait for that day's Orange solution.

When we had the freezing temps and the wind-chill factor, we watch the girls' combs and wattles for frost bite.  Nothing yet. Their wattles are fairly well protected in their neck feathers and their combs are basically just slight little red bulges on the tops of their beaks.  Their feet seem to be holding up, also. 

I'm really hoping that the ramp's new ruler traction does the trick. And, if the girls try to use the ramp as a slide tomorrow morning, they are in for a very rude bum thumping on the way down!